Cloudy With a Chance of Rainbows

The weather man had called for rain, but as I stretched on the start line, I found myself shedding clothing. The sun was now peaking through the clouds, and I didn’t want to overheat during the race. I suppose I forgot about the dark, gray rain clouds looming overhead, threatening to dump at anytime. Just what I had wished for on the day of TVRAA, the first qualifying round in the high school cross country season. That was written with sarcasm.

             As soon as the race began, I knew I should have stretched more. My legs felt a little stiff, and it created a resistance very similar to when one runs through water. But I picked up my pace, and I eventually warmed up. I caught up to the first pack, which is excluding the leader prancing hundreds of meters ahead of everyone else. The pack consisted of a few girls whom I’ve met and competed against over the years- but we’re all friends regardless of the competition. I’m not quite sure when or how it happened, but I was suddenly running alone in second place.

            I find a race becomes very lonely when running alone. Don’t get me wrong, I was both happy and grateful that I was in second place. But I found myself worrying about a girl catching me and running me down, so I subconsciously picked up the pace. I wasn’t the happiest camper, because I was soaked, and I was freezing. I swear, at one point I even felt little chunks of ice falling from the sky.

            As I was heading for the final loop, I thought for sure that the girl in third place was right on my heels. I know that I don’t really have a kick at the end of a race, so I prepared myself to see her fly by me. Then I thought about it. It’s not who has the better kick at the end- it’s who wants it more. Those are familiar words of wisdom that my father has shared with me before races on many occasions. I silently thanked him as I sped through the finish line and claimed my blue ribbon.

            And of course, my day is never really complete without bolting to a rehearsal of some sort. I jumped in the warm car and raced to beat traffic so I could make it to my school’s gala rehearsal on time. I shivered as I learned that it not only rained during the race, but I heard that there was also hail, sleet and snow. I changed into warm clothes as soon as I reached the school, and my teachers kindly gave me some time to catch my breath. However, I very shortly found myself in the midst of a hectic and stressful dress rehearsal. A gala is simply a name for a show with many numbers of song and dance showcasing talent. My high school has a highly developed performing arts program, and we never shy away from an opportunity to show the city what we’ve got. As excited as I was for the gala however, I wanted to be anywhere but a gala dress rehearsal. There are usually technical issues that have to be ironed out, costume and prop pieces that are suddenly introduced, and generally a lot of waiting around for your cue to enter the stage. I could feel my energy draining as time dragged on. And as exhausted as I was after rehearsal had finished, what did I do of course? I went to another rehearsal.

            In the end, the gala turned out really well, and I had a tremendous amount of fun. As soon as the audience is there, I find I feed off of their energy and my own performance level increases. Here is a clip of a song performed that night, featuring myself and a couple of my friends. It’s a song from Shrek the Musical, sung by Princess Fiona as she grows up dreaming of her knight in shining armor.

            When I’m feeling stiff during a race, drained during a dress rehearsal, or just overall miserable, I need to learn to remind myself of what I’m working hard for. I need to promise myself that a new day is just around the corner, and that everything will be okay in the end. Because no matter if it’s raining outside, when the sun comes out there’s always the chance of a rainbow colouring your sky.